All Hallow's Eve
by AlphaWriter1
Summary: A Halloween-inspired one-shot for everybody's favorite couple,Puckleberry!Kurt and Mercedes force Rachel into a costume and drag her to Santana's Halloween party.And nobody recognizes Rachel.They think she's some hot new girl,and Rachel uses this to her benefit.But things go downhill fast,especially on the scariest night of the year.Luckily,Puck's there to step in and save his girl


**All Hallow's Eve  
A Puckleberry One-Shot  
**

She wasn't exactly sure how she'd allowed Kurt Hummel to talk her into getting dressed up for Halloween that year-her senior year, no less. She was even less sure how he'd managed to convince her that attending Santana Lopez's annual Halloween party was a good idea. Sure, the girls had become closer to civil throughout their years in glee club together, especially after both of them yelling at Finn Hudson for selfishly blowing their chances at Regionals the previous year by kissing Rachel in an attempt to get her to pick him over Jesse St. James-Rachel had declined them both politely, as she wanted to be without a boyfriend after her past two horrible years in the dating world. And it was true that Santana had carelessly invited every single member of the glee club to the party, but it had been merely out of politeness, rather than actual want for any of them other than the Cheerio's and football players to attend. Santana would hate it if Rachel actually dared to show up accompanied by Kurt, Mercedes, and Artie-she had no choice but to accept Tina's attendance at the party, as Tina and Mike were pretty much a package deal.

Yet, Rachel was standing besides Kurt in the Halloween store as Mercedes Jones tossed costume after costume towards the short little Jewish girl, telling her how incredible she would be as Marilyn Monroe or a scarecrow or some sort of Greek Goddess. Each costume had one thing in common. They were extremely tight fitting and very short. Nothing that Rachel would ever be seen in any other day of the year. Actually, she'd never bothered to dress up for Halloween before. She didn't have any friends, before Glee club had formed, and this was actually her first year of having solid friendships, so she'd never had anybody to go trick or treating with. And she had never before even heard about a Halloween party before the date of the party had already passed.

It would probably explain why her fathers had been so excited to learn that Rachel wouldn't be staying home this Halloween watching _Yentil _like she did every other year. She was leaving, dressing up, and going out with her friends. They hadn't even bothered to question anything about supervision or underage drinking. They'd even disbanded her curfew for the night, in their excitement that Rachel was leaving the house on October 31st for the very first time.

She shook her head as she hung up the sexy witch costume that Mercedes had just handed her. Mercedes and Kurt had also tried to get her into a sexy cat costume, a sexy vampire costume, a sexy nurse get-up and a sexy pirate-it seemed as if all adult costumes for women had to be sexy in some way, and that was not Rachel's style. She'd assumed that Kurt and Mercedes would have realized that by now, especially with all of the insults they'd given her because of her wardrobe preferences in the past years. But, apparently she had assumed wrong and proven Noah Puckerman's theory that assumptions only made an ass out of 'me and you' correct.

"I heard Santana has a whole karaoke thing set up for the party. Come on, Rach, you can't pass that up. You need a costume-an amazing costume," Kurt insisted.

"But I don't _want _one. I don't even want to go to the party, Kurt," Rachel insisted, her eyes watching the door, wishing she could just leave already and enter the regular stores the mall had. Rachel would prefer another Kurt-inspired make-over over the torture she was being put through by her best friends any day. "And when did Halloween turn into an excuse for girls to get dressed up as sluts with the safety of not being called one?" She wondered.

"They should have just made _Mean Girls _about Rachel's life," Kurt shared a look with Mercedes. "Listen, I guarantee that you are wanted at the party, and it would be a huge favor to me and Mercedes both if you came to the party and had fun, looking amazing in a lovely costume," He sighed, turning back to her. "So, will you at least go try the devil costume on? For me? Anyways, Mercedes is going to be an angel, so you guys could pretty much be matching," Kurt begged. He grabbed a packaged, all red and black costume from the rack nearest him and stuffed it into Rachel's hands.

He didn't bother to check the price, but that didn't matter. Rachel had been given access to her fathers' credit cards, due to their excitement.

"Fine, I'll try it on, but I'm not making-oh, shit, can we just leave and try to do this some other day?" Rachel asked, her eyes growing with dread at the arrival of a group of people who had just entered the store, cheerleading uniforms still on with their hair twisted into sky-high ponytails. Santana, Quinn Fabray and Brittany Pierce had arrived, arms locked together, laughter sketched across their face.

And the attention of every single male in the store turned onto them. Rachel sighed, looking at them with envious eyes before glancing down at herself with a sad smile on her face.

"How would you like one night to be sexier than all of them?" Kurt asked, his voice cutting into Rachel's thoughts about how lucky the three beauties were. Santana, with her tanned skin, long limps and large curves with exotic features and dark hair and eyes. Quinn, with her classic movie star looks with a perfectly symmetrical face and bright blonde hair that curled perfectly. And then there was Brittany with her all American looks-blonde waves and blue eyes, the essence of innocence. Rachel just couldn't compete.

"Yeah, like that's ever going to happen?" Rachel snorted in a very uncharacteristic sort of way.

"It could," Kurt said, his eyes locked intently on her. "All it takes is the right costume on the most mysterious night of the year and the confidence that only Rachel Berry is capable of having. And forget the devil costume," He said, taking the package from her hands and thrusting another one into it. "You're getting this one, no questions asked, alright?" He shrugged as if it were that simple and started to drag her towards the cash register.

* * *

Noah Puckerman rolled his eyes. Going to school the day before Halloween, especially when Halloween fell on a Saturday, was utterly ridiculous. All girls did was talk about their silly costumes, showing off pictures of their short, slutty skirts with tight fitting strapless tops. Normally, Puck would be all over that, because it meant he could charm them out of their barely existent outfits, but it didn't mean as much when they were dressed as some sort of animal.

Especially when none of them understood how scary the holiday was supposed to be. THe holiday was not meant to go from house to house for candy at all hours of the night. The holiday was not supposed to be for girls to go to parties in barely there skirts, flashing their assets for the world to see while drinking everything in sight before having sex with any available boy they could find who decided not to bother wearing a costume. The holiday was not about going to haunted houses while clinging to a boyfriend's hand for dear life before bragging about how brave their boyfriend was, only to have sex with them later.

And as un-Puck as that sounded, it was true.

Halloween was supposed to be all about getting as scared as possible. It was meant for sitting at home, in the dark, eating candy and mock-gross food (spaghetti for intestines anybody?) while watching horror movie after horror movie until the early hours of the morning.

Which was why he would not be attending Santana's Halloween party.

Nobody could pay him enough to get him to go there. It was a stupid, pointless waste of time that only added to the commercialization of Halloween, something that he strongly disapproved of, just as he did with Valentine's Day-it was meant to show your love to people, not try and brag about how amazing your boyfriend was. He felt that way about St. Patrick's Day and Christmas-even though he didn't celebrate the holiday. People were slowly forgetting the real reasons behind the holidays that they enjoyed so much.

"Hey, are you going to Santana's party?" Mike Chang, Puck's best friend, asked him as he dropped down into the chair besides him during lunch on October 30th.

"Santana's _Halloween _party?" Puck asked in disbelief, raising his eyebrows at his friend. If anybody knew how Puck felt about the forgotten traditions of Halloween, it was Mike Chang Jr, who had been forced to listen to every single one of Puck's rants throughout the month of October. Yet, here he was, asking Puck if he was attending a party to celebrate what he hated so much. "Are you crazy?"

"I heard Rachel's going," Mike said.

"Berry?" Puck asked, turning his head towards the tall, lanky Asian boy, raising his eyebrows. "She's going to _Santana's _end of the season Halloween party that's going to be full of football players and cheerleaders? Where did you hear _that _from?" He asked, crossing his arms.

"Mercedes was bragging to Tina about the costume that she and Kurt got for Rachel. Apparently it took forever, because Rachel kept saying no, but Kurt convinced her into this tiny little dress. I have no idea what she's supposed to be because I stopped listening and focused on her boobs after a while, but I thought you'd want to know about _Caroline," _Mike said, smirking on the last word as he used the boys' secret code name for Rachel that they'd had since tenth grade.

Which was when Puck had finally fallen-and admitted to having fallen-for Rachel Berry. That was when he'd decided to admit that he loved her, with every fiber of his being. That was the year that he decided he would do whatever it took-even if it meant never figuring out a way to earn Finn's friendship back, because he knew that would ruin his chances of ever getting with Rachel-to get her back. She'd broken up with him, and he'd allowed her to go. He'd been a jerk to her, but he'd been working his ass off to make it up to her ever since his comment about how they weren't friends. He'd even defended her to Santana one time, telling everybody that he did actually like Rachel, in some way, proving to everybody in the club that he and Rachel had become friends, despite what he might have said in a moment of distressed anger during a very stressful time of his life.

It didn't matter that every single time he had gotten close to being with her, Finn had gotten in the way. He was going to keep pushing past that.

Sophomore year, he had dated her, but he had allowed the baby drama and Rachel's feelings towards Finn to break them up. When he had an opportunity to win her back, she was suddenly with Jesse St. James, and that was not kosher-Jesse would never understand what it meant to be a Jew, after all. And then when they were juniors, he'd albeit told her they could never be together because of Finn, when he'd stopped their heated make-out season because he couldn't stand to hurt his 'best friend' again. And then he'd sung that duet with her, and they'd had a little bonding time throughout the year-and she had never made a move, so he'd allowed himself to foolishly believe that he and Finn could become friends again, because it wasn't like Rachel wanted him back, and it was clear that Finn only wanted to keep anybody else from dating Rachel-he didn't actually want her back.

Except, he did want Rachel back, which was made clear when they'd gotten to New York City. And that had made Puck punch his 'best friend' in the face, vowing to never forgive him ever again and resume his plans to get Rachel Berry back on his arm.

The only person who knew of his plan, though, was Mike Chang. Which the exception of a now absent Sam Evans, who had somehow become Rachel's best guy friend.

"Well, maybe I'll stop by. I mean, we did win the championship again this year," Puck said slowly. "Just got a little while though-I'm not going to stay forever or anything. Just stop in and out, check out the hotties in their mini skirts, you know? But, maybe not. I'm not sure yet," He shrugged.

"Would this have anything to do with a particular future Broadway star's attendance at the party?" Mike teased.

"What? Rachel? No, it doesn't matter at all that she's going to be there wearing some sort of tiny little thing. I'm just going because it's senior year and my last party as a football player at this school. I might at well enjoy it," Puck insisted.

"Yeah, sure," Mike snickered.

"Jack-ass," Puck rolled his eyes.

"You're in denial, man," Mike shrugged.

"I am not!"

"Acceptance is the first step to healing," Mike informed him.

"I'm not going to a party just because some girl that doesn't even give a shit about me is going to be there. I can get any girl in this school I want. I don't need to pull any extra trials to try and get with some prude girl," Puck rolled his eyes.

"Liar," Mike coughed.

"Dick."

"Walking STD," Mike punched him on the shoulder before getting up and hurrying off to catch up with Tina.

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" Rachel asked, glancing down at her short, black and white old fashioned styled dress. It had a form fitting bodice with a flowy, full skirt that ended a few inches below her ass. The straps were thick, almost off the shoulder. The pattern was paisley, black on white, appearing almost grey. She was wearing it with black Mary-Jane heels and fish net knee shocks. She had a beautiful, black, feathered mask covering her eyes and her hair was curled around her face, falling loose towards her shoulders, gently down her back. It was almost impossible to recognize her.

"Hell yeah, I'm sure!" Kurt said, wearing his black and white striped prisoner costume with the numbers scripted across the back. Blaine Anderson was going as a police officer, dressed in blue with a badge pinned to his chest. The couple was adorable, and not in the sickly way. "Blaine, tell her she looks hot," Kurt insisted.

"I'm debating on which way I'm swinging right now," Blaine said seriously, causing Kurt to shove him playfully.

"You're smoking babe," Mercedes grinned, sliding her arm through Rachen's. Mercedes was in a long, flowy, one shoulder white dress with large feathered white wings on her back and a halo planted on her funky up-do.

"This isn't too much?" Rachel wondered, following the group towards Santana's house.

"Who the hell are you and what the hell did you do with the Rachel Berry we all know and hate? You're not confident at all and that is the opposite of sexy!" Mercedes groaned, pulling open the door and leading the party inside.

"Mercedes! Kurt! Blaine! You guys came-and you brought a guest. Who's the hottie?" a now out of the closet Santana asked, a large grin on her face. The leggy Latino was dressed in the sexy-scarecrow-cutie costume that Mercedes had given to Rachel to try on. It was a red and white button down tee shirt that fell off of the shoulders with a short, flirty denim overall skirt with straps that fell off of one shoulder. Hay stuck out from the bottom of the skirt, with a few plaid patches on it to match the top. She wore her hair in a pair of twin braids with a pointed hat with hay attached, balanced on the top of her head. She had gotten all into her costume, putting on simple brown flats and doing her make-up like a young girl, with freckles drawn onto her face.

"Hey, Santana," Rachel said, allowing a smile to be released. If Santana was calling her hot, then this costume was not a bust. If Santana didn't recognize her, than Rachel could go ahead and enjoy the party, without having to deal with any of the after effects that came with drunken mistakes or wild party nights.

"No effing way! That's Berry?" Santana exclaimed, her jaw dropping despite the red solo cup she'd already raised to her lips. "Brittany! Get your ass over here-did you know this is Rachel? Can you freaking believe that it's Berry?" The obviously drunk girl asked her girlfriend as the tall, thin blonde girl approached slowly, a confused look on her face at Santana's obvious outrage at being left out of the loop of Rachel's hotness.

"Hi San!" Brittany said cheerfully. "Hey guys," She grinned. Brittany was dressed as Alice in Wonderland, in a blue dress with short sleeves and a flowy, short skirt. She wore it with white knee socks and black wedges, her blonde hair pulled back by a baby blue head band.

"Hey, Brittany," Rachel said.

"Oh my god-it really is man hands?" Quinn gasped, having approached with Brittany at Santana's shock. "You look amazing, Rachel...I can't even find a good enough insult for you tonight, Rupal," She grinned. Quinn was dressed as a sailor, in a tiny little navy blue, form-fitting dress with white knee socks and navy flats, a navy hat on her short, blonde hairstyle. She was sexy, just as much as Rachel, but in a trying-too-hard type of way. She was wearing even less than Santana and Brittany, which was shocking for the Christian girl who had always been so into being the goody-two-shoes of the Unholy Trinity.

Rachel and Mercedes shared an eye roll at Quinn's backhanded compliments before excusing themselves and heading towards the living room, where they were positive they would find Tina and Mike, as well as Sam, who Santana had called and invited to the party.

"Damn, who's the hottie," Azimio Adams released a low whistle as Rachel and Mercedes passed. "Yo, masked babe, what's your name?" He called out. Rachel shook her head, ignoring his calls as she resumed her walk, wishing she could just find Sam and Mike so she could finally be in the safety of her big-brother-like bodyguards.

* * *

"Who _is _that girl?"

"How did the gayest guys here end up showing up with such a hottie?"

"That girl's sexy as sin..."

"She's smoking,"

"I wonder what she's like in bed."

"But who _is _she?"

Puck was getting pretty annoyed with all of the stupid comments. Every guy at the party was talking about Rachel and her secretive costume, and it was sickening that nobody even realized it was Rachel. They thought it was some hot, new girl, probably a cheerleader and most likely a relative of one of the four gleeks she was with-Artie had arrived and was dressed as Yoda-in a wheel chair, something that made Puck burst out laughing-hey, even bad asses can appreciate Star Wars!

Puck hadn't figured out who was in that costume from asking around. He had not spoken to the beautiful girl yet, and he had not talked to her friends to inquire if she was Rachel. He didn't need to wonder and get an affirmative or negative answer. He already knew that she was Rachel Barbra Berry, because he knew her body better than he knew anything or anyone. There was no way that short girl with the long, amazing legs couldn't be Rachel.

So, when every single football player in the room-and most of the hockey players who had crashed the party, decided that it was alright to talk shit about how freaking super mega foxy awesome hot _his _totally awesome girl looked-_his _hot little Jewish American princess-it bothered him. Because he was pretty sure that if they knew it _was _Rachel they wouldn't be thinking all the dirty things he was sure they were thinking about her.

And, even if they still thought such nasty things about her-Puck chose not to concern himself with the fact that he was thinking the exact same things that every other boy in the room was thinking-they wouldn't actually go and _talk _to her, because that could bring their street cred down. And, if they bothered to risk their social lives by talking to her, he was sure that they wouldn't apologize to her for all of the torment they had put her through throughout the years.

But, what was really bothering him about the whole ordeal was the fact that Rick the Stick Nelson, who he hated more than anybody else in the entire school for some unknown reason, had just broken up with his sexier than Santana, sophomore cheerleader of a girlfriend, just so he could _stare _at Puck's girl without having to deal with his own girlfriend's jealousy. And the fact that Rick and Jacob Ben Israel were sitting there discussing a _bet _to get with her.

And that was pretty damn annoying, because Puck would have assumed that Jacob would have been able to tell that it was Rachel before even Puck. He only stalked her every waking minute of the day. He should just _know _what her costume was.

But, even he didn't seem able to believe that the log, bare-legged beauty with the voluptuous chest that was albeit popping out of her corset styled top was none other than Rachel Berry, all made-up with pre-ready sex hair to match.

Oh, god how Puck loved it when she let her hair hang loose without bothering to actually style it. And when she went all daring and went out in public with her hair already in that sexed-up style, he couldn't resist her. It made it too tempting to go for a quick little quickie, sure that nobody would even notice what they'd done.

"Damn, who the hell is she and how is she not being fawned all over by Puckerman yet? There's no way a girl as hot as her isn't on his radar right now," Azimio said to Rick-apparently the two of them had become close since Karofsky's absence.

"Does that really matter? It's good that Finnocence and the Lima Loser aren't all over her. Because that's just going to make it harder for me to get with her. Because I'm _going _to get with her. I'm gonna go talk to her," RIck smirked as he started walking towards Rachel.

Puck was close enough to the group that Rachel had belonged to-with Tina, who was dressed in a tight little black dress with all different cut spikes at the bottom with combat boots and a witch's hat, Mike, who was a ninja (extremely bad ass), as well as Artie, Kurt, Mercedes, Blaine, and Sam Evans who had come to the party dressed as a zombie-that he had heard Rachel mutter something about taking off to go get a drink. While Puck loved that she was getting away from all the people and all of the horny boys' stares, he hated that she would now be broken away from the group, free to be hit on by every other male in the room.

"Hey, baby-do bras come in a size perfect? Because I'd get that size for you...but seriously, what's your cup size?" Rick called out to Rachel as soon as she entered the hallway between the living room and the kitchen. He was leaning against the door to the kitchen, blocking her entrance, and a motivated Rachel would never turn back around to go back to the crowded living room without fulfilling her purpose for ever leaving. And, Puck may or have not been blocking the door in his Zorro costume-hey, if he wanted to wear a mask and a cape, then it was officially bad ass, alright? Besides, he got to carry a sword.

Either way, it didn't matter what Rachel's reaction was or how corny and stupid Rick's pick up line was. It didn't matter what Puck's costume was or where he was positioned to watch this entire scene play out. All that mattered was that Rachel was pretty much trapped in a hallway with a horny teenage boy who couldn't stop staring at her chest, ass and legs-Puck was getting ready to give him directions to KFC, since all he seemed to want were her breasts, legs, and thighs-and the fact that the boy was using the world's worst pick-up lines on _his _girl. Apparently three years cancelled out Puckerman's dibs, though. Then again, nobody knew this girl was Rachel.

"Would you like directions to Kentucky Fried Chicken?" Rachel asked, tilting her head to the side with a sweet smile on her face. She twirled a strand of hair around her finger tips and Puck watched as Rick's eyes focused in on the Jewish girl who belonged to Noah Puckerman. It was clear though, that Rick was just as excited about hearing what Rachel had to say next as Puck was. "Because I think you'll enjoy their breasts, thighs and legs a little bit more than mine, don'cha think?" She smirked, crossing her arms tightly over her chest as she stared at him, one hop cocked out with a long leg extended in front of her. She had no idea how sexy she looked.

"Actually, I'd rather go to this new place I just heard of. It's called Great Legs-what time do they open?" He asked, making his real meaning quite obvious to both Rachel and Puck. Puck had to hand it to the hockey player, though. He didn't let anything stop him from using some of the world's worst pick-up lines, which was saying quite a lot about the quality of these lines, because pick-up lines sucked horrible in general. Puck would never actually bother to use one on a girl, yet it was clear that Rick the Stick had a large supply of them, and could make each one work somewhere, no matter what the girl replied.

"Yeah, it's awful funny but...they don't open for you," Rachel said wick mock-sincerity.

"Oh, I'm sorry-I'm being rude. You clearly don't remember me. But, you see, we went on a date once. Or maybe it was twice..."Rick said.

"Well, if you and I ever did go on a date together, it must have only been once, because I don't ever make the same mistake twice," Rachel said. THis line was a low blow and a lie, as she had made the same mistake repeatedly by going back to Finn Hudson. But, as nobody knew who Rachel was, except for Puck who had picked up on Rachel's lie, it was alright. There was also the fact that Rachel didn't think of Finn as a mistake. But Puck didn't want to think about that one.

"You're awfully pretty, but I wish I could see your whole face, without that mask. I bet it turns a few heads," He winked.

"ANd I'll bet that yours turns a few stomachs," Rachel said.

Puck was impressed-his girl had skill. SHe didn't need somebody to step in and try to defend her. She could handle herself. Still, Puck wanted to be there, just in case things got out of hand and she might need her knight in shining armor-the bad ass one, not the stupid one. And that one was Noah Puckerman, not Finn Hudson, just in case anybody had any doubts bout the matter. Noah Puckerman was the Prince Charming to Rachel Berry's Cinderella.

"Can I just have your name? We'll start out slow," He said. God, he never quit.

"Why...don't you have a name of your own?" Rachel frowned.

"What's your sign?"

"Stop."

"Okay, well, I know that I've seen you someplace before. I'm right, aren't I?"

"Yeah, that is right. That's why I don't go there anymore," Rachel said brightly.

"Where have you been all my life?"

"Hiding from you," Rachel shrugged. Puck couldn't help but snicker at that one. He was pretty sure one like that, especially after all of her other ones, would cause him to turn around and leave, walking away right then and there. But apparently Rick was a little more confident in himself than that.

"Okay, let's cut to the chase. Your place, or mine?"

"How about both? I'll go to my place and you go to your place!" Rachel said. Rick glared at her before pushing past her, storming back into the party, even bumping into Puck, which was something that could only be allowed when a person didn't recognize the bad ass.

"You sure attract some incredible guys," Puck said, entering the hallway and following Rachel into the kitchen.

"Yeah, I'm a lucky girl, I guess," Rachel grinned.

"You always have been one to get us player like dicks, Berry," Puck snickered.

"I guess it's just a curse, then, Noah," Rachel said.

"How'd you know it was me?" He asked.

"I could ask you the same question."

"I could recognize you anywhere."

"The mohawk isn't covered up, Noah,"

"Shit,"

* * *

Rachel rolled her eyes at yet another one of Sam's lame impressions, shaking her head as she giggled at his stupidity. Out of the corner of her eye she searched for Puck again, trying to find his black straight leg, skinny jeans with the white, button down, ruffle front shirt with the black cape with the high neckline and the slender black mask covering his eyes. He'd chosen not to wear the hat, with a pair of black leather boots. He just looked so _good. _But, he always looked good. Noah Puckerman was, at least, in Rachel Berry's eyes, the hottest boy to ever grace the halls of McKinley high school with his presence. And he was the most talented boy to ever enter the choir room to join the glee club, whether being forced into it or not-which, unlike their _leader _Finn Hudson, he was not. Puck had joined on his own accord.

"Yo, hot stuff-start paying attention to me," Sam whined, actually doing his very best impression of the night, pretending to be one of the silly, stupid football players that had been trying to steal her away from the group all night. "Come on, Rach, you know you think I'm funny!" He insisted, reaching over to tickle her sides. She shrieked with giggles as she leaned up against him, finally spotting Noah Puckerman once again. She couldn't help but notice him shake his head and look away from her at the sight of Rachel and Sam laughing together, much closer than Rachel was with any of her other male friends.

"Why don't you go sing some karaoke to get those jerks off your back," Santana Lopez suggested. Apparently, having been a member of the glee club for three years and spending so much time with the glee club, she had realized she hated all of the drama and drunken stupidity of the cheerleaders, hockey players and football players. She and Brittany had been spending most of the night with the Gleeks.

And, surprisingly, she, Brittany, and Rachel had hit it right off, laughing about Rachel's run-in with Rick, which she had informed everybody about almost immediately after it happened, leaving out the Puck part, and dancing the night away, attracting even more stares.

Of course, Santana's newest plan wasn't exactly something Rachel wanted to jump right on.

"Me? Sing a solo? But...everybody's going to know it's me if I do that, and then all of this...everything that's going on right now because of the fact that they can't recognize me-it's all going to be gone. People are going to hate me and start-"

"Puh-lease," Santana cut her off, raising her hand in the air to silence her newest best friend, even if Rachel didn't agree with that title, or know that Santana had dubbed her as that. "What do you think matters more to high school boys who are high on hormones? Hot girls or annoying personalities? Because, if you were smart or knew anything about guys, especially at this school, you'd know they'd rather be with an annoying hot girl than an ugly quiet one," Santana rolled her eyes.

Rachel was quiet for a couple of minutes, giving Santana's idea a little bit of thought before nodding affirmatively, turning on her heel and walking towards the large DJ table that had been set up for Santana's party, requesting a song to sing karaoke to, something that Santana had been advertising since the day she'd started inviting people to the party. What Rachel and the other gleeks did not know what that Santana had chosen the karaoke and invited Rachel, knowing Kurt and Mercedes would drag her against her will, was to make her and Brittany win their bet with Kurt and Mercedes about when Puckleberry 2.0 would begin.

She leaned across the DJ table, knowing that all eyes were on her, but, for once that night, not caring. She was about to sing. She was going to perform. And nobody could take away Rachel Berry's confidence when it came to a performance, especially when she was actually getting the full attention of everybody in the room, being cheered on before she even began. Especially when Santana freaking Lopez was giving her encouraging smiles and a wide thumbs up. Especially when Quinn Fabray was shooting her envious, jealous looks the entire time with her arms crossed tightly over her chest. Especially when Brittany Pierce was grinning excitedly, telling anybody who would listen that that girl was her best friend and had more talent than anybody.

The music started to play to the old song, covered by Ashley Tisdale in her movie _Picture This _and Rachel straightened up instantly, a smirk forming on her face as she accepted the microphone from the DJ, cocking out a single hip as letting one hand dangle effortlessly at her side, the other one brought up to her mouth to hold the microphone in front of her face. She wasn't focusing on anybody in particular in the crowd. She wasn't focusing on the rest of the room at all. Instead, she was focusing on the music and the fact that all she wanted was to be accepted-and she was going to let it finally happen.

"_We're running with the shadows of the night/So, baby, take my hand, it'll be alright/Surrender all your dreams to me tonight/They'll come true in the end/You said, oh, girl it's a cold world/When you keep it all to yourself/I said, you can't hide on the inside/All the pain you've ever felt/Ransom my heart, baby, don't look back/'Cause we got nobody else," _She began to sing, belting out the words and the notes to perfection.

_"We're running with the shadows of the night, so, baby take my hand, it'll be alright/Surrender all your dreams to me tonight/They'll come true in the end," _She went on, ignoring the sudden outbursts of whispers that all featured her name in shocked tones.

Of course, she should have known that trouble would come from this idea.

When she was finished, and started to make her way back towards her friends, she noticed the boy dressed as a reporter-a silly costume, really, since he already happened to be exactly that when it came to McKInley and his constant need for drama and rumors.

Jacob Ben Israel was at the party, even though Rachel was positive that Santana had not invited him. And she was sure that nobody had casually mentioned the party to him in passing, leading him to believe that he was actually welcome there. Rachel was sure that JBI was crashing the party, and about to ruin her night. Because, when she'd finished, it was to the best applause she'd ever gotten in her life when it wasn't at a competition.

"Well, there's my little Rachel. I must admit, I was actually starting to believe that you weren't going to show up. I didn't think that the beautiful girl in this costume was actually you. I hoped, but I wasn't foolish enough to allow myself to believe that my lovely girl would actually show up at a party wearing something oh so similar to all of my dreams about her. Of course, I've dreamt of you wearing just about everything. So why don't we stop with all of these casualties and niceties and just go find somewhere we can be alone to make up for all of the lost time we've had this night," He suggested, raising his eyebrows at her.

"Um, yeah, as tempting as that actually sounds, I'd rather not do that. You see, I think I need to go get my shots again to prevent myself from catching anything from you," Rachel said, unsure of where this Santana like persona was coming from, but loving it none the less. She was confident, and not just from her performance, but from her appearance, and that was a very rare thing to happen to Rachel Berry, especially when it came to the other students in her peer group at McKinley. "Anyways, I really should be getting back to my friends now. I'm sure they're waiting for me after my little impromptu performance," She said, plastering on a wide smile. "If you could just move over and perhaps let me by so I cou-"She was cut off by Jacob pushing her, shoving her up against the wall.

"I'm really getting sick of these little games, Rachel. I put up with your little crush on Finn Hudson which was rather unfair to me, by the way, and I dealt with you and Puckerman dating one another and constantly flirting and making out, but I will not allow you to rudely insult me and ditch me in public when you have nobody else that is better than me in your eyes. You're going to stop these games, now," He told her.

"Just let me go, Jacob," Rachel sighed. If it were anybody else, she was sure she'd probably be afraid, but not with Jacob. She knew him too well to think he would actually hurt her or cause her pain in any way at all. It wasn't in his nature.

"I thought we just went over this, one, Rachel," Jacob shook his head, letting out a bitter laugh.

* * *

Noah Puckerman had tried fighting through the crowd in order to reach Rachel as soon as her solo had finished, but he hadn't been able to find her.

Not before anybody else found her, that is. He did spot her, talking to Jacob Ben Israel in the middle of a very crowded corner of the room. He watched as she tried to get away from him and he started pushing his way closer to her when he saw the jack ass push his girl up against a wall.

Rachel Berry might have had to deal with Jacob's constant flirting for years, but she'd never had to deal with it alone. Puck had always been there to do his best to try and make the kid keep a restraint of a few feet. When the idiot had tired to kiss her at her Bat Mitzvah, Puck had told him and everybody else around them that Rachel was his girl and only allowed to kiss him. And then he'd kissed her himself, stealing her first kiss away from her.

When he finally was able to reach them, he was beyond pissed. He was madder than he'd ever been before and it wasn't just at Jacob. It was at Santana for hosting the stupid party in the first place. It was for RIck for rubbing the party into Jake's face, giving him all the information he'd need in order to crash it. He was mad at Kurt for insisting that Rachel get in a costume and pissed at Mercedes for helping Kurt force his girl into such a slutty costume. He was mad at Finn for not fighting harder to get with the girl over the summer. He was mad at Sam for not protecting her better. ANd he was mad at himself for not getting there sooner.

Because now Jacob was trying to kiss Rachel. Rachel! Didn't he know that Rachel was Puck's girl and nobody else? Sure, he'd allowed that idiot that he'd once called his best friend to kiss her a couple of times-a lot of times, if he was being technical. And yes, he had stood by when Rachel had kissed that moron kid from another glee club. But those kisses had made Rachel happy. Puck's warning at her Bat Mitzvah that only he was allowed to kiss Rachel was still in tact. When Puck called dibs on a girl, she was _his _forever-or, at least until he gave somebody else permission to go after her. He had never actually given Finn or Jesse the allowance to _have _Rachel. He'd just told them that they could borrow her for a little while, because it had been what she wanted.

But what she did not want was Jacob Ben Israel's hands all over her. She did not want to be man handled while wearing a short, tight fitting dress that made her ass, legs and boobs look amazing and made him want her more than usual. She didn't want Jacob to try something with her because her make-up was all sexy and SAntana like and her hair looked as if she'd already had sex at least once that night. She did not want anything to happen just because she looked easy on Halloween where that was okay. Girls' slutty costumes on Halloween were not meant to be taken as literal invitations to go ahead and hit on them without relent. They were not meant for idiot, horny guys to try their best to win the hot girls over. No, that wasn't what they were for.

SO, that would explain why Puck grabbed Jacob by the back of his tee shirt and yanked him off of Rachel. That would explain why Puck was allowing the anger to take over while he pined the ginger haired Jewish boy to the wall, swinging his other hand back and firing a punch square into his jaw. It would tell everybody in the room that Puck was no longer concerned about the fact that he'd just gotten off of probation and could probably get sent to prison for real this time for what he was doing. Because no matter how big of a jerk Puck was, he respected girls and he took no for an answer, no matter how badly he wanted them.

"Don't you fucking touch her," Puck growled right into Jacob's face, a fierce look in his eyes. "You-stupid-ass-hole-idiotic-little-moron-who-can't-take-no-for-a-fucking-answer," Puck said, emphasizing each insult with a carefully placed punch to the face or the gut, depending on just how injured and pathetic Jacob was looking before each blow was delivered. He released his hold on Jacob and watched with satisfaction as the boy fell to a heap on the ground.

"If I ever see you come within a hundred feet of her again-if I ever see you touch her or look at her for too long ever again, I swear to god I will kill you, no matter how few Jews there are in this town!" Puck growled down at him, taking Rachel in his arms and dragging her away.

She didn't try to say anything as he pulled her from the living room, to the kitchen, and outside onto Santana's back patio.

"You broke your promise," She said softly, once Puck had turned on the outside lights and the door to the house was shut.

"What?" Puck asked, shocked that Rachel was accusing him of breaking a promise after he had just saved her from that sloppy idiot's clutches when he had tried to do whatever it was he wanted to do with her. "What the hell are you talking about?" He asked.

"You told me last year," Rachel said, as Puck started to rattle his brain in order to remember what he had promised her. "When you were being nice to me after I found out about Santana and Finn, that you vowed to be nicer to people if you got out of the port a potty alone. And then, you told me that you changed that to only Jews, because you remembered how much you hated people," Rachel said, a slight giggle at the end of her statement.

"Yeah, well, you know what...I'm changing that again, because it's too damn hard to be nice to all Jews when some of them are annoying idiots like Jacob Ben Israel who deserved to be tossed in a dumpster for every time he's ever touched you-speaking of which, I have about fifty more tosses to get in before the end of the year, so I better get started..."Puck said, the end added on as a thought mostly to himself. "Anyways, are you okay? That's why I brought you out here, I wanted to make sure you were okay. And I wanted to tell you that you look sexy as sin," He winked at her with a playful grin.

"You thew Jacob in the dumpster because of how he treated me?" Rachel asked, looking down at the ground to hide her small smile and flushing cheeks. Puck loved that he had that effect on her. It was something that he could get her to do that nobody else could master. Just as she could get him to smile sheepishly, rubbing his neck as he looked down at the ground. She could make him smile in a way that lit up his entire face, causing his eyes to sparkle in happiness. Just like she was the only person to break down all of the walls that made him Puck and turn him into the realistic boy who people could connect with. Rachel didn't allow him to be Puck when they were together. She forced him to be Noah, because that was the side of him that she actually liked and wanted to be friends with.

"I threw Kurt in the dumpster because of that too," He admitted, pulling his sheepish little Zefron move once again, proving just how she could affect him.

"Why didn't you ever do anything to-"

"Finn led you on, and I kind of figured he'd do that. Which is why I attacked him with paintball guns as soon as I realized you liked him," Puck cut her off.

"What about Jesse?" She wondered.

"I got my revenge on him. Don't worry about that one." Puck assured her.

"Thank you, for helping me," Rachel said. "All those times," She said.

"It was worth it..."

"Why'd you do it?"

"Because...damn, Berry, you know I suck that this shit,"

"What do you mean?"

"This feelings crap? I'm no good at it,"

"You have feelings for me?"

"Well, you are _my _Berry,"

"Alright,"

"Alright? That's all I get? Dammit, Berry, I'm trying to profess my fucking love for you and you-"

Rachel cut him off at that, reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck as she stood on tiptoes, giving him a long, slow kiss on the lips.

It was a simple kiss, without any tongue involved. It wasn't a make-out, but it was the best kiss Puck had ever had in his life.

"What was that for?"

"You love me?"

"Maybe,"

"That's not an answer. It's a place holder."

"Was that kiss because you think I do?"

She reached out and playfully punched him on the arm. "The kiss," She said, rolling her eyes at him. "Was because I actually happen to love you, and I thought that you were admitting that you happen to love me as-"

This time, Puck was the one to cut her off. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close to him as he leaned in and kissed her, right on the lips, his hands reaching up to cup her face with one, the other staying on her tiny waist.

And this kiss actually was a make-out. She opened her mouth, sighing into the kiss as he slid his tongue onto her mouth, her own tongue hurrying out to meet his as her arms wrapped around his neck, standing on tip toe to get closer to him.

"I love you," He whispered, making his way to her neck as he started to kiss it, trailing little circles with his tongue across the surface. "I love you, Rachel Berry. I love you _so _much," He whispered again and again as he kissed her everywhere he could.

And they stayed like that, for the rest of the party, wrapped in one another's arms as they kissed one another and Puck told Rachel at random intervals that he loved her and that he had always loved her. It didn't matter that they were missing all the fun. They were creating their own.

And when Rachel started to get tired of standing, they sat down on the edge of the patio, his arm wrapped around her to keep her warm as he kissed her cheek occasionally as they stared up at the starlight sky, enjoying one another's company.

And Rachel talked about her plans for the future, asking him questions that he yes and no-ed his way through in order to keep the conversation from getting anything close to serious. Because he just wanted to enjoy the fact that she was his girl now.

"You're my girlfriend now, right, Berry? I mean, you're my girl and nobody else can have you. And I'll finally settle down and stop being a man whore like I always was? Because I'm yours too," He asked, wanting her to say the words so he knew they were real.

"Yes, Noah," Rachel said, giggling slightly. "I'm your girlfriend and you are my boyfriend. Although, I'm rather upset with that blunt and non creative way of asking me out. It was rather annoying, especially after our cliche-d declarations of love," Rachel said brightly.

"You talk too much," Puck told her, turning his head to face her. "I'm going to have to do something about that," He threatened, leaning in closer to her and kissing her, his hands settled on her hips as she moved herself closer to him, still sitting.

"Can you two break up this love fest long enough to at least get into Puckerman's truck and off of my property because I need to clean up and my parents will be home soon. I don't need them knowing exactly how extreme this party was," Santana cut them off.

"Wait a second-they're actually together out there? Aw, man! I really could have used that hundred bucks," Kurt whined, pushing his way into the doorway, standing besides Santana as she smirked, holding a hand out expectantly.

In that hand, Kurt dropped fifty dollars before turning around and handing fifty to Brittany. Mercedes did the same thing as Rachel and Puck stood up, staring at them all in confusion, trying to figure out what was going on.

"You guys bet on us getting back together?" Puck asked, an amused smile on his face. "Dammit, why wasn't I in on this? I could have made sure I won-or made whoever made it more interesting for me win," He shrugged teasingly and the gleeks all laughed.

* * *

Puck and Rachel entered the school the following Monday and it was obvious to everybody they were a couple for five very clear reasons.

1)Puck was holding her hand. He didn't have his arm draped casually around her shoulders or tightly around her waist. His hand was not in her back pocket. He was just holding her hand as they walked together down the hallways.

2)Puck's gaze did not leave Rachel as she talked to him, telling him everything he was going to need to do if he wanted to actually graduate on time and go to a good college somewhere in New York. She was lecturing him and he wasn't rolling his eyes. He had his gaze locked on her with an amused smile on his face, not bothering to look at any other girls. He was focused on Rachel, despite her long nagging.

3)Puck was not trying to cut her off. He was not looking as if he was strained to listen to her. He didn't look like he couldn't wait to be able to kiss her and sleep with her so she was finally silent. He actually looked interested in what she had to say. He had a small smile on his face and a slight blush-something that nobody had ever seen on Noah Puckerman before-and his was nodding and occassionally adding a few words of comment either agreeing with or disagreeing with whatever it was that Rachel was telling him. He was having a conversation with her where she was telling him what to do and he was happy about it.

4)She was wearing his letterman jacket with his last name scripted across the back in big, white block letters across the red fabric of the jacket. Sure, the jacket was worn with one of her tiny little black skirts that everybody had always mocked-despite the shortness and the fact that when she bent over or the wind blew, everybody could see her panties. She was wearing it with a simple white tee shirt and knee socks with the skirt with the same Mary Jane hooker shoes that just screamed fuck me. Her hair was pulled back in a headband as always. She was dressed the same way Rachel Berry normally dressed, with a letterman jacket belonging to a boy who had never allowed a girl to wear it before, signaling that she was special to him, and his.

5)He was holding a slushy, but it was not being aimed at anybody in the school. Instead, he was drinking it. And then he had another one in his hands that he was not drinking, but that had a lid and a straw attached to it, showing that it was not meant for throwing, but instead meant to be consumed, something which was rarely done with slushies when it came to the students at McKInley High school. And she was holding one as well. But she wasn't taking any sips from her own slushy.

Instead, she was clutching it with an excitement smile growing when he nodded towards a particular locker, belonging to a certain boy that Rachel Berry could not stand.

She released her hand from Puck's free hand-he held the slushies in one of those drink trays they gave out when multiple drinks were purchased-and skipped towards the red haired, afro-ed boy named Jacob Ben Israel.

And with a simple twist of her wrist, he was covered from head to toe in dark purple dyed ice. Apparently, Rachel had been watching every time she had been slushied by somebody, because her aim was perfect. Her form was perfect. And her speed was incredible. THere wasn't a second for Jacob to realize what was happening yet alone try and get out of the way of the slush coming towards him, staining his outfit in the purple dye that had taken over Rachel's own wardrobe so many times. And, before anybody had really realized what had happened, Rachel had skipped back over to Puck, taking the second slushy from him and slipping her hand back through his as she sipped her slushy and resumed her walk down the hallway with her boyfriend.

And, for the first time in McKinley history, an original Gleek had slushied a member of the school. (Kurt's slushy attack on himself did not count, and nobody counted the time they had all thrown slushies at Mr. Shuester, because he was a teacher.) Rachel Barbra Berry, the original slushy victim, marked a change in the social structure of the school with her senior year, tossing a slushy into JBI's face. And her proud boyfriend smiled down at her as he gave her a cherry-flavored kiss when he dropped her off at her locker, leaving the girl with Santana Lopez, Brittany Pierce, Kurt Hummel, and Mercedes Jones, her best friends.

And, Puck, after his grape-flavored kiss from Rachel, made his way towards his locker to meet Mike Chang and Tina Cohen-Chang-his best friend with his girlfriend.

And, two very envious exes who wanted their first loves back watched the scene with their arms crossed, jealously taking it all in as Rachel slammed her locker shut and led her friends towards Puck, racing into his arms as she kissed him, having thrown her empty slushy away. Puck lifted his girl off of the ground, just barely, and swung her around before setting her back down and saying, loud and clearly for everybody to hear,

"I love you, Berry. And I think I have a new favorite slushy flavor," He told her, leaning in to kiss her once more. Finn Hudson clenched his fists tightly at the scene unfolding in front of him as he stood jealously at his locker. Quinn Fabray punched her own locker before turning around and storming off, hating that the only two boys she'd ever loved both seemed to be picking Rachel Berry over her-and that one of them had never really loved her, because he'd been so hung up on a loser girl who should have meant nothing to such a popular boy as Noah Puckerman.

"And what's what? Grape? Or are you going to be all corny and say Puckleberry, because I'd have to walk away if you turned into a cheesy boyfriend like that," She giggled, teasing him.

"Actually, it's Berry," He winked, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as he started to walk her towards her homeroom.

And he decided that maybe he didn't hate Halloween as much as he'd once thought he did. Maybe it was a pretty okay holiday. Just maybe.


End file.
